


white poppy (a garden of dead flowers)

by paranypmh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, fred being a little shit that we all love dearly, george being a cute boyfriend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranypmh/pseuds/paranypmh
Summary: War is expected to have causalities. Two causalities have brought two broken hearts closer together, both in the very beginning and in the very end.
Relationships: Cedric Diggory & Original Female Character(s), Cedric Diggory/Original Female Character(s), Cho Chang & Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley & George Weasley, Fred Weasley & George Weasley & Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley & Original Female Character(s), George Weasley & Original Female Character(s), George Weasley/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	1. preface &&. contents.

**Author's Note:**

> — ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WATTPAD UNDER USERNAME @MARYSHELLEYS.  
> — MOVED TO ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN JUNE 9, 2020.
> 
> this author in no way supports nor shares jk rowling's disgusting and harmful behavior or views. if you have ever been a target of rowling's behaviors or views, i want you to know that you are beautiful and are not, in any way, what jk rowling says you are. you are loved and welcome here; you always have been, and you always will be. ♡

**WHITE POPPY (A GARDEN OF DEAD FLOWERS)**

❝ _we were never meant for funerals_. ❞

george weasley x original character

**o. — / contents &&. flashbacks notes.**

**(** _updated as chapters are written/released_ **)**

**ACT ONE** **:** blooming death flowers.

 **(** _goblet of fire flashbacks_ **)**

 **i.** post mortem

 **ii.** yule ball

 **iii.** final task

 **iv.** flower girl

**ACT TWO** **:** a better garden.

 **(** _order of the phoenix flashbacks_ **)**

 **v.** new friends

 **vi.** dolores umbridge

 **vii.** being open

 **viii.** sewn ties

 **ix.** rebellious teens


	2. post mortem.

**── (** May **;** 1998 **)**

The adrenaline pumped itself through her veins as she weaved her way through the crowd of bloodied and beaten wizards. Her face was stained in tears, and every once in a while a fellow Hogwarts student or professor or even teacher would stop her to rub them away and engulf her in a suffocating hug. The young woman’s shoulders were covered in a mix of other people’s blood and tears, but not in a bad way; they had won a war that had been brewing for almost two decades. And even if the Great Hall was silent, only the occasional chatter of friends as she made her way through people bruised and broken from the recent events, she could feel the sense of accomplishment in the air. They won.

She wrung her hands together as she found an opening in the crowd, craning her neck for the familiar red hair of the family she was looking for. She was specifically searching for  _ one  _ person of that family, someone she knew she needed to talk to, but the rest of his family would be just as good. If he wasn’t with them, they’d know where to find him, at least.

She hoped they would, anyway.

She finally found a group of five, all sitting in silence but still smiling. She recognized one ── Molly Weasley, the mother of the boy she was looking for ── stroking her daughter, Ginny’s, hair. She recognized the rest of them, freckled faces and bright ginger hair dirty and bloodied from the fight, and the tears in her eyes blurred everyone else in what remained of the Great Hall. She stopped near them, a little out of their immediate eyesight that caused her presence to go unnoticed by the other five individuals.

“George,”

Her voice was soft, cracking and almost breaking her own heart. His tired, purple-rimmed eyes glanced over to her, and flickered with recognition of who was standing there. The rest of George's family with him, his parents and two of his siblings, also seemed to notice her, though their reaction did not match his. George’s voice was soft, almost breathless, when her name left his lips for the first time since Harry Potter had cheated death.

“ _ Poppy _ .”

The Weasleys all moved at once, but George was faster at grabbing the girl who had come to them and pulling her to a tight hug. George buried his head into her hair and Poppy burying her face into his shoulder, suddenly aware of how much taller he was than she and the rest of his family. George's arms looping around her and his sister Ginny that joined the hug easily, while Poppy’s palms barely met his shoulder blades. The other Weasleys there joined the hug, too, Molly's hand finding home in the tangles in Poppy's hair. None of them wanted to move; if it were possible, they could have probably hugged forever.

That was only a dream, though; the six pulled away, George's hands staying on Poppy’s sides while she smoothed down Ginny’s hair with her hand. Ginny smiled, and a twinkle of tears glistened in her eye. No girl deserved to see war like she did.

“George,” Poppy said softly, and she looked at him with her hand making its way from Ginny to one of his hands to hold it, “could I talk to you for a moment?”

He looked at his family, his mother pressing a hand against his back to push him toward Poppy.

“Go on, don’t keep the lady waiting,” she whispered, nodding toward the girl he almost toppled over.

“Aye, I’m  _ going _ ,” he muttered under his breath, and he let Poppy pull him off to somewhere away from his family and from the Great Hall, his fingers intertwined with her. Behind him, he heard, with his good ear,  his sister whispered something inaudible and made his mother laugh.

**❀ ❀ ❀**

“Are you holding up, Georgie?”

They were outside in the open now, hands no longer as clasped together as they were and had taken to holding pinkies instead. Poppy hopped over rubble of fallen parts of Hogwarts castle, looking to the redhead beside her. She noticed him struggle to swallow as he looked out to the water surrounding the castle, pieces of the school that once felt like home sinking to the bottom.

"It's . . . difficult," he started, and Poppy moved to properly hold his hand again. Something hung in the air as George found himself staring into the nothing with his unasked questions. Finally, he took a deep breath, slowly exhaling as the question finally left his lips.

"Could I say something strange?"

“After everything that's happened? Nothing is strange, Georgie,”

"Fred . . ." the name seemed to choke George, and Poppy squeezed his hand for reassurance so he could continue, ". . . I struggle to finish my sentences, now. Especially when I'm with the rest of my family. I know it hasn't been that long, it's just . . . odd. My voice cracks and I forget what I was saying ──"

“Because he was always there to finish them for you,” Poppy’s thumb ran against George’s knuckles, now crusted with blood after quite literally beating down Death Eaters some hours ago, “that’s not strange at all, George. You two were closer than anyone else,”

“Yeah,” his voice cracked, and they both stopped walking, “yeah, we were.”

He reached for the girl with him, and she let him hold onto her while he sobbed into her shoulder. Her hand reached for his hair, smoothing down the spiking bits as his tears soaked the fabric of her shoulder. They stood there like that for a long time, George’s hands clutching to Poppy’s shirt as if he was looking for something to be real. Nothing  _ felt  _ real anymore ── Fred Weasley, George's twin brother, his one and only best friend since they entered this world, was dead before George was. They had promised each other that they’d end their lives together on the same day, an homage to their birth in their deaths, unless time took them first.

But, barely at the age of twenty, they found that time was far too early.

Poppy pulled away just enough to hold George's face, and her hand ran down his cheek until it rested on his shoulder. She glanced at him, an unspoken question, and his answer was a nod.

She closed the gap between them, pressing her lips against his. She knew it wasn’t a bandaid ── the only patch for the wound he had was for his brother to somehow still be alive. Somehow Apparate next to them and laugh that Poppy was kissing George, because that was just who Fred Weasley was as a person and a teasing and older twin brother. But a kiss was all she could give him in that moment that weren’t words of her condolences, which she knew would grow old by the time everyone in the Great Hall finally decided it was time to part ways and return home, safe from the threat of Voldemort and his plans of wizarding world domination.

They stood there for a beat, probably one too long, and she pulled away and ran her hands down to hold his.

“George, you know you helped me back a few years ago,”

He watched her mess with their hands, and he tilted his head curiously, “I remember,”

“I want to help you like you helped me,” she looked up at him, and her eyes glinted with a whirlwind of memories and emotional tidalwaves, “will you let me?”

He raised an eyebrow, thinking over the question that hung between them. Poppy found it hard to meet his eyes, and he just laughed and pressed a kiss against her temple.

“Poppy, I welcome any help you can give me.”


	3. yule ball.

── **(** May ; 1998 **)**

"Did you know I wanted to take you to the Yule Ball?"

"What?"

The two sat together on a large piece of rubble outside near where they had been standing. It was nice to be out and away from those who were mourning and calming down after the Battle of Hogwarts. Poppy reached for George's hand, squeezing it as he laughed at the memory of his story. It was a sad laugh, not the one that Poppy had grown to love over the years, but it was better than more tears, she supposed.

"Fred and I had a bet," his voice cracked at the name again, but he cleared his throat with a short _ahem_ and continued with watery eyes and shaky hands, "that if one of us could get a date to the Yule Ball with either Fleur or one of the other Champions' dates before someone else did, the loser would have to do the winner's homework for the next month after Christmas break. The problem was that Fred had already asked Angelina, showing Ron how easy it was to ask out someone to the Ball and the like, so it was really just a bet against me in the end . . . I chose you as my first choice, Hogwarts pride and all, even though Fred always claimed it was more than that. But that plan was really, _really_ dumb of me, because I kind of completely forgot the fact that you were dating Cedric and I had no real chance from the start."

The two of them gave a short laugh, and George squeezed her hand as he said something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Oh," his face was flustered, and his eyes darted away from her as she faced him, "uh, nothing,"

" _Georgie_ ," Poppy's eyebrow raised disapprovingly, and the other sighed.

"You are impossible, you know,"

"If I was as impossible as you make me out to be," she leaned her head against his shoulder and looked out to the horizon lined with the hills and mountains around Hogwarts, "you wouldn't be sitting with me right now,"

George pressed his lips against the top of her head before leaning the side of his head against hers, "I _said_ you and Cedric had coordinated your outfits. I don't know how you managed that,"

Poppy smiled to herself as she picked at the fabric of her torn pants from the fight, "Cedric and I had been together since January that year, so our parents decided to coordinate our outfits for us. Quite embarrassing in the Great Hall when we got the gifts, too, in front of everyone at our table. Surprising you don't remember that, but then again you and Fred were likely off pulling a prank,"

George gave a short chuckle, followed by split second of silence. Under his breath and barely audible, he said to himself, "Please don't tell me your mother would do that for _our_ wedding,"

"Pardon?"

"What? I didn't say anything,"

Poppy squeezed George's hand systematically before she went on with her own story, "Well, the Yule Ball was an . . . _interesting_ time for me, to say the least,"

"Interesting in a good way or a bad way?"

"Y'know? I'm not quite sure. Not now, anyway. Not anymore."

**❀ ❀ ❀**

── **(** December ; 1994 **)**

"Line up with your partners, Champions, you're all the first to dance."

The participants of the Triwizard Tournament ( or the more aptly named Quadwizard Tournament, courtesy of some of the Hogwarts students after the incident of the fourth name from the Goblet ) lined up, each lady's arm looped in that of her date's as they waited for the fashionably ── though were they really? ── late Harry Potter and Viktor Krum. Third in line, Cedric Diggory stood with his date, Kornelia Popwell. Their outfits were, in fact, coordinated, showing their shared house colors of yellow and black with Poppy's frilly floor length dress and Cedric's tie tucked in the blazer of one of his father's older suits that was too nice to let go to waste in a wardrobe. Cedric leaned down, his voice soft to avoid glares from Professor Mcgonagall to mutter something to his girlfriend.

"Lucky your mother taught us to dance,"

Poppy held back a giggle before she leaned back to whisper in return, "Oh, believe me, she sent an owl telling me how excited she was that we can put our lessons to good use in front of three different schools."

Cedric glanced to the side as Viktor Krum and his date ── Hermione Granger, he realized, after he blinked twice to make sure he was right ── moved to the front of the group and Harry Potter and his date, Parvati, stood behind them. After they finally joined, the doors opened, revealing the Champions and their dates to an anxiously waiting crowd of, in honesty, more people than Poppy had expected there to be. 

"Hey, you're shaking," Cedric whispered under his breath right before the Champions started walking into the Great Hall that had been decorated for the occasion, "just focus on me. Forget everyone else who's around, yeah?"

Poppy's lips formed a line, and she glanced at the lines of students watching them all enter. She recognized many of the Hogwarts students; people like Draco Malfoy and the Weasley twins, and even Neville Longbottom with Ginny Weasley at his side. Something about the sight of familiar faces, despite none of them being in her same house, gave her some ease with Cedric's words.

"Right," she said as she and Cedric faced each other, their hands fitting together as they did a hundred times before and Cedric's hand resting on the small of her back, "focus on you."

"Told you you couldn't get a date with one of them,"

"Just because you won our bet doesn't mean you have bragging rights,"

"On the contrary, dear brother! That's _exactly_ what it means."

The Weasley twins stood together for drinks, taking a moment to watch the party that had come to a slow decline after the rock band had departed and the impromptu mosh pit that was created disbanded. There were definitely less people in the room, most of them now just Hogwarts students who didn't want to leave to their dorms. The Weasley twins had just escorted their dates, Angelina and Alicia, back to the dorms, though neither of the boys were quite ready to turn in for the night yet.

"I'll have your stack of work to start you off by Monday,"

"At least I know how to write in your handwriting: completely illegible and requires a Charm to decode it."

Fred smiled at his brother's comment and took a look around the room for who was left in the decline of the Ball. In a corner of the room was his younger ( and only ) sister, Ginny, swaying with Neville Longbottom with their foreheads against each other. He cringed at the sight and looked away with a sharp movement of his head, his eyes lighting up with an idea when they landed somewhere else in the mostly empty Hall.

"Hey, George, look over there,"

A _hm_ vibrated in George's throat when he had a mouthful of his drink, looking at where his twin subtly pointed through his cup. Sitting and talking with Ravenclaw Cho Chang and Hogwarts' first Champion and Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory was another Hufflepuff, a girl with a soft face and brunette, shoulder-length hair that had been curled somewhere near the beginning of the night. After the twins watched the three for a moment, the girl waved off Cho and Cedric, the two leaving to dance together, Cho's arm looped with Cedric's.

"Isn't that the girl you were going to ask?"

"Kornelia Popwell? Yeah, but our bet's done,"

"Well, _I_ think it's a shame that she's all by her lonesome while Cedric dances with Cho,"

George dug his elbow into Fred's ribs, but his brother only laughed. George sneered, "What, you think I'm just going to sweep her off her feet for a last dance like this is some fantasy story Mum read us to bed with when we were five? C'mon, Fred,"

"You don't even have to dance! You just need to sit and talk with her is all, keep her company. You do _like_ her, after all ──"

"── I don't like the way you said that ──"

"── But if you won't keep her company, I guess it'll be _my_ job,"

Fred made a dramatic and comical step forward toward the girl with the yellow dress, but George grabbed his arm and pulled him back, shoving his drink in his brother's hand. The older twin only smiled.

"What, change your mind?"

"No, I just don't want you walking to her like _that_."

George walked toward the girl on the other end of the room, Fred whistling just loud enough for his brother to hear. Against his own back, George stuck his middle finger up before he finally approached the girl with the yellow dress.

"May I sit with you?"

Poppy shook her head out of a daze, looking up at George and raising an eyebrow of suspicion, "George Weasley wants to sit with _me_?"

"I'm more surprised that Kornelia Popwell knows that I'm George," the twin smiled and motioned to the seat next to her that was vacant, "but may I?"

She moved over to give him more room as he took his seat next to her. George caught a glimpse of his brother giving him a thumbs up as he turned back to the table with the drinks and snacks that were mostly gone after the night's events.

"I noticed Cedric left with Cho to dance," George tried to look for a conversation, but he found it hard to meet the other girl's eyes.

"Ah, she had asked him to the Ball," Poppy smiled to herself and George did, too, because of how infectious that smile was, "very brave considering formalities of boys asking girls rather than girls asking boys. Poor Cedric had to tell her no, but he felt so bad after it happened. I was the one who suggested they have a dance together, to ease his mind about rejecting her and all,"

George tried not to laugh, instead letting a huff of air leave his nose. Poppy looked at him, "What?"

"It's just . . ." he smiled, finally meeting her eyes and losing his place in time. George watched as a hair fall from its styling, bouncing into a small curl on the side of Poppy's head. For a second he forgot what he was going to say, forcing himself to not move forward to fix the stray strand of hair. It came to him suddenly that George had been staring just a beat too long with nothing to say, forcing him to clear his throat and find his place again in the conversation, "I don't know. Usually you don't seem the type to know my name, or talk to me like this,"

"Quite rude to not know a classmate's name, isn't it? Plus, _you're_ the one who came here to talk to _me_ ,"

"Yeah, but I may have a _bit_ of a twin brother who looks exactly like me and most can't tell us apart to begin with," George motioned back toward Fred, who had taken to talking to some other students that were still in the Hall in an enthusiastic story, his hands flailing and a big smile across his face and his audience in red-faced laughter, "you could have called me Fred and I would've messed with you and said I was him. And you could have told me to shove off, so you could've stopped this conversation before it started at all,"

Poppy nudged his arm with a smile slowly growing on her lips, "You and your brother aren't _completely_ identical, you know. People just don't look for the differences,"

"And you do?"

"Yeah, I did before I learned enough to tell you apart," Poppy shrugged, gazing into nothing, "I learned your face is more square than his, and his is more triangular than yours. Fred also has a really freckled nose but not many freckles on his cheeks, and you're quite literally the opposite,"

George blinked in disbelief. Of course he and Fred knew those differences, but she did too?

"And you learned all this . . . why?"

They both only glanced to Cho and Cedric as they made their way back, Poppy standing up to meet them.

"Because who said I couldn't?"


	4. final task.

── **(** May ; 1998 **)**

Poppy pulled George's hand up to her lips, leaving a light kiss just above his bloodied knuckles. He smiled as she moved to face him.

"So Fred was the one who set it up all along,"

"To be fair, I did call you pretty once in our fourth year after our Herbology class, if memory serves me right. After that, he never let me live it down, even though you started dating Cedric in fifth year and under . . . _normal_ circumstances, you probably wouldn't have given me the time of day,"

"Hey, I gave you the time of day at the Ball!" Poppy laid a short punch against George's arm, and he only laughed at her and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"The Tournament doesn't exactly count as a ‘normal’ circumstance, either," his hand ran through her hair that had grown since those days, ending somewhere in the center of her back. His fingers found a particular piece of her hand to mess with as Poppy leaned her head against his shoulder.

They sat like that in silence for a moment, remembering the next part of their story all too well. There were the good parts, of course ── the parts where Poppy started talking to the twins more, when she properly met Fred Weasley himself and the twins’ best friend Lee Jordan, officially becoming part of their group. There was the one time she was almost blamed for playing a part in one of the twins' pranks; thank goodness it was Professor Mcgonagall who caught the three of them and not another teacher in Hogwarts, at least. It could have been when the twins made a bet on who'd come up first, Harry with Ron or Cedric with Poppy, and how the twins laughed with the soaking wet Poppy and Cedric to congratulate the latter on his success **(** "Nice work, pretty boy Diggory," was their exact wording, and Poppy hit them while she shivered from the cold **)**. But those weren't the important parts of the story. Not for Poppy’s retelling.

She knew it was going to hurt to think about it again; things like the emotionless expression on Cedric's face and the fourteen-year-old Harry Potter's heart wrenching sobs that shook his entire body that day haunted her nightmares and, especially on bad days, completely intruded in on her day-to-day life. They had done so for years now, and they were never easy.

But George was there for her. He saw the good days and the bad days, and never once did he flake out on her. She wanted to be that for him, but she knew what it would take for him to realize that.

"Poppy, I know that look," he said softly, and he smoothed her hair with her other hand, "I know thinking about it makes you upset. You don't have to ──"

"I know I don't have to, George," her hand grasped his, and he squeezed back to let her know he was still there, "but I want to. What you did for me, what you gave me, helped me so much during everything. I want you to know I will do the exact same thing for you from beginning to end,”

"As long as you're okay with reliving the story, Poppy," his voice was soft, and Poppy found it hard to meet his eyes, "then I know better than to think I can stop you."

❀ ❀ ❀

── **(** June ; 1995 **)**

The final task in the tournament was simple **(** or, at least, as 'simple' as the tournament would allow **)** ── one competitor had to get to the center of the maze, claim their prize, and return to receive the title of being the Triwizard Champion of their school. It was going to be glorious; every school sat in bleachers facing the way the champions had entered, all eagerly awaiting the return of whoever they cheered for. Poppy sat with George and Fred Weasley, who both bet her that Harry Potter was going to win and not Cedric. She disagreed, and every second that passed made her heart rattle her ribs, and she sat with the twins for the moment she got to rub it in their faces that Cedric Diggory won. After all, how exciting would it be to call the Triwizard Champion your boyfriend?

Two students returned to the maze’s starting point with a _pop_ , and the audience noticed the colors of their clothes before they heard anything else ── Gryffindor red and Hufflepuff yellow. All Hogwarts students, including the Weasley twins and Poppy, cheered in excitement as the band started playing a blood pumping fanfare above any other sounds. The crowd threw things in excitement or rage, obscuring the view of the truth of the Champions.

Fred and George turned to Poppy to make a compromise on their bet because of the return of two winners when a sharp scream of terror ── Fleur? ── pierced the crowd. Everyone jumped and the fanfare drooped to a stop, students of all three schools as well as their professors looking to the champions who had made it back. Professor Dumbledore rushed to the younger Champion's side, Harry's entire body shaking with violent sobs as his tears soaked Cedric's jersey.

It was only then that Poppy realized that Cedric was laying in the grass, his eyes blank and his entire body stiff.

The tears came to her eyes quickly, and she reached for the person closest to her to hold onto as the sobs finally erupted and shook her entire body. She grabbed for a sweater and lanky arms ── one of the twins, though she didn't know which ── and those same arms held her just as tight. George's eyes met his brother's, just as scared and confused as the crowd around them. Fred's arm went around his brother and Poppy, hoping to provide at least some sort of comfort.

Amos Diggory, Cedric’s father, made his way down the risers, yelling people out of his way to see his child. Harry Potter, still sobbing, struggled to stand with the help of Professor Moody, reaching out for the dead boy still on the ground. A vicious silence covered the crowd as professors and students came closer to see just what had happened.

Poppy sniffed, looking up and refusing to glance at the body as Amos sobbed and cried out of his son’s fate, "George?"

The redhead moved his head down to hear her soft voice as she talked, his brother mirroring him, "What is it?"

"Do you mind . . . walking me down there?"

George looked at Fred, and Fred at George, before they both moved the Hufflepuff girl through the crowd of people sobbing to where Cedric and his father were, guarding Poppy from the people that were already offering her their condolences. As they passed through the crowd, Poppy only got a quick glance at Cho Chang, but she saw the tears that soaked her face and the red streaks they left behind.

As soon as Poppy was close enough to see Cedric's face, white and expressionless and most definitely dead, she burst into another fit of tears and fell to her knees and out of the arms of the Weasley twins. Her shoulders shook violently as Poppy leaned against Amos's shoulder, who hugged her and shushed her sobs through his own. Fred and George met eyes, and nodded in a silent agreement; soon, the boys were kneeling behind Poppy and rubbing her back as she grabbed the hand of the boy she thought she’d marry one day. The twins refused to look at the body, or at Poppy, their eyes only on the crowd and at each other while they attempted to give some sort of reassurance that she wasn't alone.

Poppy pressed a kiss to her fingertips, leaning over and pressing them against Cedric's cold lips. Something in her wanted to feel warmth, wanted it to just be a cruel prank **(** though what for? **)** and wanted for Cedric to sit up and tell everyone he was okay and that Hogwarts did, in fact, have two winners for the first time in the Tournament's history.

But there was no warmth, and when Dumbledore closed the young man’s eyes, it all became clear that Poppy Popwell would never feel Cedric Diggory's warmth again.

  
  


The Weasley twins walked down one of the corridors toward the kitchens in Hogwarts, both of them linking arms with the Hufflepuff girl who hadn't said a word since they left from the arena. Before they left, Amos Diggory hugged her goodbye and pressed a kiss against her hairline before she would head back to her House dorms, mumbling his condolences and how loved she would continue to be by the Diggory family no matter what. She barely heard him, though, her ears ringing and her mind swirling in a whirlpool of emotions and thoughts that felt disconnected from anything Poppy thought she knew.

The twins had offered to walk her, watching her struggle to even stand straight after everything that happened, and she only solemnly nodded in acceptance of their offer. Neither of the Weasleys said anything as they entered the castle; there were no right words to say, and it wasn't clear then if there ever really would be.

They stopped near the kitchens, knowing very well the boys weren't allowed further than where they stood for reasons of security of the houses at Hogwarts. Poppy broke from them, turning around and rubbing the stray tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, I ──"

"Kornelia," George was the first twin to speak, and he held her shoulders, "don't apologize,"

"Your crying is completely justified," Fred continued, and his brother moved his hands from Poppy, "I know I would be right now if I wasn't the level-headed twin,"

"Don't listen to him, he is most definitely _not_ the level-headed one,"

"Oh, you think _you're_ the level-headed one, George?"

The two brothers bickered, playfully spouting nonsense about each other’s tempers, and Poppy laughed, even if it was only half-hearted. Fred and George looked at each other, and though they didn't smile or make it known, their makeshift plan had worked at least a little bit.

"We'll see you, Kornelia," they said in unison, and the girl waved a goodbye as she sniffled down the rest of the hallway toward the barrels the twins knew left to her common room but were never able to figure out the way in. Fred tried to stare at where she was, try to figure out what she said or did to open the doors, but George pulled him away, back down the hallway and soon toward the Gryffindor common room.

"C'mon, Fred," he said, and he adjusted his sweater absentmindedly, "we can't be like that now,"

"George Weasley not wanting to mastermind a prank? A shock," Fred turned his head over his shoulder as he absentmindedly adjusted his sleeves, "but I agree. Now would be too bad of time for one. We can wait for a better time,"

"Yes," George looked over his shoulder, half expecting Poppy to be there with Cedric when he did. He turned back around when the silence of the hallway set in and he realized he'd never see those two together again, almost walking into his brother's side who pushed him back with one arm without thinking, "we can wait."


End file.
